100 Year Celebrations marred by madness

Passionate fan ‘HateQld‘ talks about the NRL 100 year anniversary and how the bad publicity has hurt the premier year for Rugby League;

The NRL should be celebrating the 100 years of Rugby League. Instead the NRL have had a lot of very bad publicity and very ugly of off field incidents. The NRL was about over the SBW saga, along comes Greg Bird who again managers to bring the game into disrepute. This is not his first bad offence this year; it is the third time in 2008 that Greg Bird has been in trouble with alcohol related incidents, the latest allegedly smashing a glass into his partners face. Greg Bird was the stand in Captain of the Cronulla Sharks while his own captain, the sharks other bad boy Paul Gallen was out on suspension.

The Sharks can get through this, this was the year they possibly could take the title, maybe they will prove the can do it without Bird, morale must be a concern; but after their win over the Tigers it seems Ricky Stuart may use it to their advantage

Is this the way the 100 years of rugby league be remembered? What will 2002 and 2004 be remembered for? Itâ€™s a pity players like Steve Menzies, Danny Buderus, Hazem El Masri and Brett Hodgson (and many others) donâ€™t get the accolades they deserve, the NRL have to look after the true ambassadors of the game.

Fines it doesnâ€™t seem are deterring the â€˜bad boysâ€™ of NRL Rugby League enough. Even the fact that contracts are being torn up doesnâ€™t seem to worry some of them.

While NRL thrives on the controversy, many female and other fans of the league may get fed up and walk away.

The Cronulla Sharks must follow the example set by the Canberra Raiders, their officials doing away with the wayward Todd Carney.

While some of the players in the NRL today are quite young, some straight out of school and hitting the big time early â€“ as elders leave the game earlier for the UK Super League and Union; itâ€™s still no excuse. Club officials, experienced players and more importantly the parents of these teenagers and twenty somethings should be showing them the way and getting involved.

Greg Bird not only allegedly glassed his partner, it seems he also allegedly tried to get his flatmate to cop the blame for him.

The only positive to come out of all this (if any), will be the emergence of a new talented footballer who wants to play first grade football, just like Herbert who came onto the scene after Todd Carney was banned from the game. Herbert was a no name footballer, but he is a house name in the ACT and may be a future representative player.

Players in the past have had too many chances both Greg Bird and Todd Carney are and were repeat offenders, they had three warnings to clean up their acts. No more warnings, once is enough, this is the only way they will get it through their thick heads.

All rugby league fans have had enough of their antics, this is way the NRL are losing fans and potential future stars of game to other codes, thanks to likes of Carney, Bird, and SBW and at one stage Willie Mason.